He started his college career at Quinnipiac, where he spent his freshman and sophomore year. He made 48 appearances for the Bobcats, averaging 3.5 points and 2.9 boards a contest. Burns transferred to NCAA Division 2 school Philadelphia University for his junior year and made an impact right away, scoring 16.7 points, grabbing 9.8 rebounds and blocking 2.2 shots per game in 2005-06. He earned DaktronicsNCAA Division II National Player of the Year, ECAC Division II Player of the Year, Herb Good Small College Player of the Year and CACC Player of the Year honors his senior season among many other accolades, when putting up averages of 21.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per contest.
Professional career
Coming out of college in 2007, he tried to make the Philadelphia 76ers' summer league roster, but eventually was not picked to join the team. Burns then launched his overseas career, signing with AZS Koszalin from Poland. In the following years, he played for teams in a number of different countries including Portugal, Germany, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, Russia, Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates. In the 2010-11 campaign, when playing for Ferro-ZNTU Zaporozhye, he was named the Eurobasket.com All-Ukrainian Superleague Player of the Year. He made the Eurobasket.com All-Italian SerieA 1st Team in 2013 and won the 2015 Czech national championship with CEZ Nymburk. Burns obtained Italian citizenship in 2016. In 2017, he represented the Italian men's national team at the European Championships. On June 20, 2018, the president of Olimpia Milano, Livio Proli, said the club reached an agreement with Burns for 2018–19 season in the Italian LBA. On June 28, 2018, Burns officially signed a deal with Milano. In May 2019, he tested positive for the banned substanceClostebol Metabolita. In July 2019, he was cleared by Italy's national anti-doping tribunal. On July 4, 2020, he returns to Basket Brescia Leonessa.
In the summers of 2016 and 2017, Burns played in The Basketball Tournament on ESPN for the Broad Street Brawlers. He competed for the $2 million prize, and for the Brawlers, he averaged 18 points per game in 2017. Burns helped the Brawlers reach the second round, but lost to Team Colorado 111-95.
